Gender Equality Vietnam Project #13980

100 Bikes for 100 Girls

by Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund

Project Report | May 16, 2022
Bicycles, Tutoring, Art Classes, and Story Books

By Sara | co-Founder

Hello Friends,

This is a quick update to all you very supportive, Bikes for Girls donors. We want to thank you for continuing to support Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund so that we can continue to provide girls living in rural Vietnam with the tools that they need to not only be able to stay in school, but to have the desire to stay in school! Again, a shining light for our girls in Vietnam has been your ongoing support. Over the last four months 80 girls have received bicycles and helmets, and through our bike repair program, 56 girls have had their bikes repaired and tuned up!

We wanted to also share with you about our expanded programs for girls that we started to pilot in 2019 before the pandemic closed all the schools. At that time, we piloted a summer tutoring program for girls in 6^th-9^th grade. This had a very successful start until the pandemic forced us to close the program. This winter though, through another small grant from an organization in Canada we have been able to start our tutoring program back up on the weekends when the girls are home from the boarding school that they attend, this will expand into a daily program during the summer months. This program takes place within one of the ethnic minority communities that we work in. At the same time, we also started an after-school art program for primary school girls in the village, for ages 7-11 as well as a story time program for their younger siblings who are too young to attend the art class, but come along with their sisters because their older sisters are usually their caregivers while their parents work. So far, we have run these programs throughout the month of April with great success. We have recruited high school and college-age student volunteers from outside the community to be mentors and readers to help us run the programs and to connect and support the girls. So far so good! All students and mentors are very much loving the tutoring program and both the story time and art classes.

As the founders of Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund, my two daughters, Sophie, and Phoebe, and myself are usually heading to Vietnam with a group of volunteer bike lovers, bike mechanics, artists and musicians during the summer, but we have not been able to do this since the start of Covid. I am hoping to make the trip in July, with a few volunteers, so hopefully the next time I send you all an update, it is from Vietnam directly!

Happy rest of the spring! Thank you again everyone for your amazing support of our small organization, it means a great deal to all of us.

Sara and the Rock-Paper-Scissor’s Team

Bike Repair

Tutoring Program

Art class

Art Class

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Jan 16, 2022
The Most Beautiful Thing She Had Ever Received

By Sara Nerone | Co-Founder

Kim and the school principal

Dear Friends,

Happy 2022, we are all looking forward to this new year. Thank you for your commitment and compassion for others around the world, we are especially thanking all of you for your continued support for our Bikes for Girls program in Vietnam. In 2021, collectively you helped to provide bicycles to 320 girls who live and travel to school on rural roads in Vietnam. Please be proud that you have helped to make a difference in a girl’s life. You are truly making a difference.

Last year, the pandemic hit Vietnam very hard, and like the U.S. schools, schools closed off and on and classes were taught remotely throughout the year. Many girls lost access to education very quickly when this happened because of the lack of ability to learn remotely. Because we give our bikes at the local schools, our bikes for girls program was on pause off and on, but our wonderful staff continued to be determined to distribute 320 bicycles all over the province of Khanh Hoa in 2021. The little girl in the photo is just one of Rock-Paper-Scissor’s bike recipients in 2021.

The oldest of two children, Kim is a 10-year-old fourth grader. She was overjoyed to receive her bike. She said it was the most beautiful thing she received in her whole life. Pre-pandemic raising a family was hard enough for Kim’s parents. Her parents searched for odd jobs; cleaning, cooking, or farm work for whomever would hire them. Since Covid-19’s global spread Kim’s mother has had to stay home to take care of the two children as the schools have closed multiple times. Her father is still working, but much less than before. Her parents told us it’s been a struggle sending Kim to school, but they are adamant that it is worth it, doing as much as possible just so she will have a better life than theirs. With all the struggles this small family has been dealing with, even more so exasperated by the pandemic, the gift of a simple bicycle has created a profound impact on this young girl's life that will be felt for years to come, as she rides to school.

We also want to share with you that we are piloting a new program to provide E-Bikes to high-school aged girls who also live far from their schools. We are piloting this program starting with just four girls, to learn more about how we might implement this new aspect of our bike program in the future. High school girls often attend school for many more hours each day than students in the lower grades and return to their schools to attend tutoring and special events after dark. We believe that E-bikes will provide greater safety and access for these girls. It is common for girls coming from middle class or wealthy families to ride e-bikes to school, or poor families to take out high-interest private loans that they cannot afford, creating further financial hardship for these families.

Again, thank you for supporting the 320 girls who received bikes in 2021, and the many girls like Kim. Happy 2022!

Sara and the Rock-Paper-Scissors Team

Kim at her home

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Sep 20, 2021
Bikes for Girls During the Pandemic

By Sara Nerone | Co-Founder

Dear Friends,

We wanted to share a quick update on our Bikes for Girls program in Vietnam, and because you have supported us over the years, you are receiving this update. We hope that you all are doing well and staying healthy.

Since our last update in May, so much has happened in Vietnam. The Delta variant started to take hold there, and because Vietnam had been doing so well throughout 2020 keeping the numbers of cases low, vaccinations were not a priority. Now the country is in trouble and since the beginning of August most of the country has been in lockdown, including the areas where we work.

The good news is that since our last report 80 girls have received new bicycles and helmets. In August unfortunately, we had to stop giving bikes due to the lockdown, but recently we received permission for vaccinated staff to go to a school in a very rural area to give an additional 20 bikes to girls there, and we hope that this will be able to continue. So we are happy to say that 100 girls have received bikes since May, and that we have provided 280 girls with bicycles so far in 2021, even during the pandemic.

Finally, in recent Rock-Paper-Scissor’s news, my daughter’s and I were featured this week on the podcast called The Edge of Adventure. We had a great time telling our story to host Adam Asher. The podcast is wonderful, and follows NGOs from around the world and their work. Listen here to our episode and please share, we would love to help Adam’s show and support other non-profits through his podcast:

https://theedgeofadventure.com/2021/podcast-rockpaperscissors/

That’s all for now, other than our Bikes for Girls program continues to be successful thanks to your support and as of today you have helped 2,554 girls get to school on their new bikes!

Thank you everyone,

Sara and the Rock-Paper-Scissors Team

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